Literature

Rationale/Aims

Literature focuses on the study of literary texts, developing students as independent, innovative and creative learners and thinkers who appreciate the aesthetic use of language, evaluate perspectives and evidence, and challenge ideas and interpretations.

Structure of Literature

Unit 1 develops students’ knowledge and understanding of different ways of reading and creating literary texts drawn from a widening range of historical, social, cultural and personal contexts. Students analyse the relationships between language, text, contexts, individual points of view and response.

Texts

Texts can be written, spoken or multimodal, and in print or digital/online forms. Texts provide important opportunities for learning about aspects of human experience and about aesthetic appeal. Teachers may select whole texts and/or parts of texts depending on units of study, cohorts and level of difficulty.

Achievement standards

Unit 3

Unit 3 Description

Unit 3 develops students’ knowledge and understanding of the relationship between language, culture and identity in literary texts. Students inquire into the power of language to represent ideas, events and people, comparing these across a range of texts, contexts, modes and forms. Through critical analysis and evaluation, the values and attitudes represented in and through texts and their impact on the reader are examined. Throughout the unit, students create analytical responses that are characterised by personal voice and informed observation. In creating imaginative texts, students experiment with language, adapt forms, and challenge conventions and ideas.

Unit 3 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit, students:

understand the relationship between language, culture and identity

develop their own analytical responses by synthesising and challenging other interpretations

create oral, written and multimodal texts that experiment with literary style.

Unit 3 Content Descriptions

Evaluate the ways in which literary texts represent culture and identity including:

how readers are influenced to respond to their own and others’ cultural experiences
(ACELR037)

the power of language to represent ideas, events and people in particular ways
(ACELR038)

how cultural perceptions are challenged or supported
(ACELR039)

the ways in which authorsrepresent Australian culture, place and identity both to Australians and the wider world.
(ACELR040)

Evaluate and reflect on how representations of culture and identity vary in different texts and forms of texts including:

the relationship between significant historical and cultural events and figures, and their representations in literary texts
(ACELR041)

the impact of the use of literary conventions and stylistic techniques
(ACELR042)

the effectiveness of specific literary conventions in texts, for example, the use of iambic pentameter, stream-of-consciousness, flashbacks, chorus
(ACELR043)

the ways in which language, structural and stylistic choices communicate values and attitudes and shed new light on familiar ideas.
(ACELR044)